Mother, Please! (13 page)

“To…?”

“To see me.”

“I did.” And that was the truth. He didn’t want this to be just for Rose anymore. He wanted to do it for himself. He wanted to get to know her because she was the real deal. A real woman, who was into her job, who really cared about what she was doing with her life.

And then there was something else. Unlike everyone else he’d come across in the past six months, she hadn’t mentioned the scar rolling down the right side of his face. There’d been so many questions, from both strangers and friends, all of which drove him nuts.

But not from Melissa.

Bottom line, she threw him off-kilter. More than his looming deadline, more than his promise to Rose, more than anything.

And he had no idea what to do with that.

T
HE NEXT DAY
at the clinic was hectic for Melissa. Her waiting room was constantly full, and though she did the best she could, and everyone was extremely polite about the wait, she felt she could have done more. Should have done more.

She really did need help in the front office. She needed someone other than herself to sign people in and organize all the paperwork. Soon, she promised herself.

Finally she saw her remaining patients—a chicken with a limp, a cat who’d swallowed a dime and a pet rat with a broken tail. She was attempting to figure out how to print the next day’s schedule when the door opened again.

The biggest Saint Bernard she’d ever seen bounded into the room, tongue hanging out, ears flopping, big body exuberant as he tugged in his master by the leash.

Melissa followed the leash up—and burst out laughing.

“Now hold on, Bear—” Jason was jerked to the
middle of the room, where he shot her a rather sheepish glance, just before he was hauled over to her by the dog. “Hi,” he managed, just as he was jerked again, to the far corner this time.

“Let me guess… Bear has a problem.” She knew she should question him about this, his third and most obvious visit, but quite honestly, she felt herself enjoying the game. Coming around the desk, she bent down and whistled softly. The huge dog gave one bark of joy and then galloped over to her, dragging Jason in its tow.

“Watch out,” he warned as she let the dog sniff her hand before petting him. “He’s a monster of a dog with no idea of his own strength. He’d just as soon drown you by drooling than anything else, and his entire mission in life has been screwing up mine today.”

“Sit,” Mel commanded Bear quietly. The dog sat.

She’d already noticed his limp. “Shake.”

The dog lifted his sore paw, and when she took it in her hands and studied it, he let out a soft cry. “Oh, you poor thing.”

“I know,” Jason said with a long-suffering sigh as he hunkered down next to her. “I’m exhausted.”

“I’m talking about the dog.”

“Oh. Right.” Jason watched her let Bear lick her face. “You going to let me kiss you like that?”

She ignored the flutter in her tummy and looked into Jason’s laughing eyes. “Are you as good at it as he is?”

“Better,” he promised silkily. “Much better.”

She had no doubt of that, but given the way her pulse had kicked into gear, it would be nothing short of dangerous to find out. “You promised no kissing.”

“No, I promised no wild animal sex.”

She let out a nervous laugh. “Promise no kissing.”

“Mel—”

“Promise.”

He sighed. “No kissing.”

“Thank you.” She drew a steadying breath. “Bear has a nasty splinter.” She got to her feet, and so did the dog, quietly now, right at her side. She’d always had this effect on animals, and they on her. They calmed her soul, soothed her in a way no person had ever managed. And yet she never took it for granted, and when it happened, like right now, she felt…needed. She had a purpose. “Come,” she said, and moved to a patient room.

Bear obediently followed.

Jason stared at her. “How in the hell do you do that?”

“I have the touch.”

His eyes darkened. “Do you?” he murmured in
a voice that had the opposite of the calming, soothing effect dealing with Bear did.

Her smile slowly faded, replaced by a shakiness in the knees, damp palms and heart palpitations, not to mention a clenching in parts that hadn’t clenched in a good long time. “Jason—”

Bear sat down in the room and lifted his paw with a soft whine.

Melissa, who couldn’t stand to see anything in pain, looked at the examining table. No way was she going to be able to get the dog up there—

Just as she thought it, Jason squatted down, wrapped his arms around Bear and lifted him to the table. Melissa found her gaze drawn to the muscles straining in his arms as he did, and when she lifted her eyes to his face, she found him smiling. “I might be a writer now,” he said in that slow, lazy drawl. “But I still have the strength of a farm boy.”

He sure did. She busied herself removing the splinter from Bear, who licked her face every few seconds or so, bathing her in doggie breath and doggie love, which she could never get enough of. Finally she tossed the tweezers into the sink and tried not to watch as Jason lifted Bear down.

The dog promptly let out a bark that assured everyone within earshot he was on the trail of something good, and ran out the door, and because
Jason had left the front door ajar, Bear ran right out that, as well, on his way to freedom.

“Damn it,” Jason said, taking off after him.

Melissa went, too, knowing she had no more patients, and that the small-town atmosphere meant she didn’t have to worry about leaving the place unattended for a few minutes. Directly behind the converted house lay a wooded area, beyond which was a river and more wide-open space.

Naturally this was where Bear was headed, hot on the trail of a squirrel or whatever had caught his fancy. As they ran after him, Melissa was grateful for her daily torturous run she took in the mornings before heading into work, and couldn’t help but notice that Jason ran with ease, as well, that long, leanly muscled body working like a well-honed machine.

She forced her eyes straight ahead, and on Bear, whom they caught up with when he treed his squirrel and sat at the base of the trunk barking his head off.

Jason bent for his leash, and gave the dog a long-suffering look. “Buddy, the less energy expelled on any given day, the better.” When Melissa laughed at that, he cocked a brow. “You don’t agree?”

There was a path that she knew wound its way along the narrow river, and by silent agreement, they started walking. “You act like you’re so lazy,
but I just ran alongside you flat out for a quarter of a mile and your breathing hardly changed at all.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe I’m just in decent shape.” He turned to face her, halting their walk. Shaded by an oak tree, listening to the river run, watching him watch her, it occurred to her she was smiling. For no special reason other than he made her want to smile. His hand settled at the crook of her elbow and she didn’t shrug him off.

“Just because I talk slow,” he said, with a grin, “doesn’t mean I move slow.”

She realized his other hand had come up and made itself at home on her hip. A lock of his hair had fallen over his forehead, and before she even realized what she meant to do, she stroked it out of his face. Her fingers came in contact with his warm, tanned skin, then the pale ridge of his long, jagged scar. She lightly ran one finger down—

“Don’t.” Lifting a hand, he pulled hers away.

“I’m sorry.” She might not know much about relating to another human being, other than for the most basic of needs, but here, finally, was something she could understand. She was good at healing, good at dealing with pain and suffering, though it wasn’t pain in his eyes but embarrassment.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered again, and lifted her free hand to touch him once more, wanting him to be soothed at her touch as an animal would. “I hate
to think of how much agony this must have cost you, and not too long ago, given the texture of the skin and the degree to which it still has to heal. Are you using anything to reduce the scarring?”

He let out a shaky laugh, and dropped his forehead to hers. “Melissa.” Another low, rather mirthless laugh. “I don’t know what to do with you.”

“How about talk to me?”

He lifted his head and searched her gaze, she had no idea for what, but he must have found what he was looking for, because he nodded. “Yeah, I’m using something the doctor gave me for the scarring.” He was quiet a moment, then told her the rest. “I was coming home late one night about six months ago. I’d taken a trip for some research, and the flight home had been long and exhausting, the drive up from LAX even more so. I think I was half-asleep when Bambi darted out in front of me.

“I didn’t want to kill it so I swerved. My first mistake. I wrapped both myself and the car around an oak tree, and because I’d removed my seat belt about a moment before to reach into the back for a soda—my second mistake—I took my second flight that day. Right out of the car and into the air, and smack into another oak tree.”

“My God.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly meet God, but I did see a bright light. When I woke up three days later, I
was told I would have died before I’d even gotten to the hospital if it hadn’t been for one very curious woman who’d come out in the middle of the night to see why a horn was going off.”

“Oh, Jason.” Her heart stuttered for him. “How terrifying.”

“Without her and her cell phone, I’d have been goners—Hey,” he said softly, seeing that her eyes had filled. “Hey, I’m good now.” He covered her fingers, which were still touching his scar. “Or as good as I get.”

“Which is pretty damn good,” she whispered fiercely, and blinked back her tears. He wouldn’t want them.

“Mel…” He cupped her face, leaned in a little, and unbelievably, she leaned in, too. And then suddenly he was ripped away from her when Bear found a new squirrel to chase.

Melissa took a step back and watched Jason try to wrestle the one-hundred-and-fifty-pound dog to a stop. He managed it, but not until he was knee-deep in the river. By the time he splashed his way out, Melissa was laughing so hard she could hardly stand.

“Oh, you think that’s funny.” He came toward her. “Me getting all wet.”

“Well, yes—” She broke off with a startled squeak when he dove for her. Whirling, she went
running, laughing when both man and dog tackled her down to a patch of wild grass. Turning, she found herself in Jason’s arms, staring up into his eyes.

She looked at his mouth, and he let out a low groan. “I promised,” he said, his hands coming up to cup her face, his thumb skimming over her lower lip in a way that made her ache. “I promised no kissing.”

The restraint was costing him. She could see a little tic in his jaw, feel the tension in his body as it covered hers, and it made her melt as nothing else would have. “That was earlier.” Slipping her arms around his neck, she brought his head down. Their lips connected for one glorious heartbeat before Bear thrust his large face between them, eyeing them with bloodshot eyes. Then he tossed his head back and let out an earsplitting howl.

Jason groaned, then rose to his feet, pulling Melissa to hers. “Damn dog, you’re supposed to help my cause, not ruin it.”

With the moment passed, Mel had a hard time looking him in the eye. She felt the need to run, far and fast. “I’ve…got to go, I left the clinic door unlocked.”

“Mel—”

She took a step back. “Goodbye, Jason.”

She ran back to the front steps of the clinic, then
watched as Jason loaded Bear up into his truck. He waved to her as he drove off, but all she could do was stand there.

She wished she could still taste him.

As she was thinking this, it occurred to her she could hear something inside the clinic, and thinking someone had let themselves in to wait for her, she entered the front door and scanned the waiting room. Someone had taken over the arduous job of sweeping up the animal hair that had been shed there during the day. The chairs were all neatly lining the walls again, the retail shelving unit nicely organized.

The front desk had been taken care of, as well, with the paperwork that she’d so hastily tossed around all day piled in the proper stacks. Sitting behind the desk, fingers tapping away on the keyboard of her computer sat a lean, willowy, attractive woman in her mid-forties. She had short, dark hair layered around her face, and bright green eyes. She smiled nervously. “Hello, Melissa.”

“Hello, Mother.”

“M
ELISSA
.”
Rose stood up and smoothed her sundress, showing off her still-fit dancer’s body. “I hope you don’t mind, I just wanted to help.”

“Actually, I—”
Do mind.
Melissa moved closer to the desk, but she could see just how organized Rose had gotten her. The schedule for tomorrow was in the printer tray. The box of office supplies on the floor had been put away. Suddenly the area looked like a functioning receptionist area. She hadn’t been gone more than half an hour, but apparently her mother had some serious office talents. “How did you do all this?”

“It’s easier if you clean up as you go, that’s all. Maybe you could put each patient sheet away as they leave, open the mail as it comes—”

“I don’t have time for that.” She glanced at Rose. “I don’t have time for you.”

Rose lifted her chin, only her eyes reflecting her hurt. “Because I never had time for you.”

“Sure you did. After you retired from teaching ballet in London.” Melissa crossed her arms and
looked away, knowing she looked defensive, but damn it, she felt defensive. “Look, thank you for all this, the cleaning and straightening up. But just because you got a bug to start acting like a mother to me doesn’t mean I have the same bug to act like your daughter.”

“But you are my daughter,” Rose said softly, coming out from behind the desk. She put her hands on Melissa’s arms, even though Mel stood there stiff as a board. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I was a selfish, horrible person when you were young, but for years now I’ve regretted that and you haven’t let me in.”

“I wasn’t ready.”

“I know. I know you’re still not, but baby, I’ve decided to stop letting you waste what time we have left.”

Melissa’s tummy dropped. “Are you…sick?”

“No,” Rose said quickly, with a little squeeze of her hands, her eyes shining. “But I want to hug you for that spurt of panic you just felt.”

Melissa took a step back. “That wasn’t panic. That was…me just being a healer.”

Rose smiled. “Know what I think?”

“I’d rather not.”

Rose held up the pink envelopes, every one of them, which Mel had rubber-banded and kept in her desk. “I think you’re going to like me.”

“Don’t push your luck.” Feeling hounded, Mel went to the front door and held it open.

Rose nodded and came close. “I can come back and sit at your front desk tomorrow, if you’d like.”

“Don’t you have something more important to do? Fly around the world? Dance? Something?”

“No. I only teach ballet on Saturdays.” Rose’s smile was as stubborn as…Mel’s.

Gee, guess she knew where she’d gotten it from.

“I have nothing more important than you,” Rose said softly. “Nothing.”

“Now.”

Rose’s smile faltered. “I was only eighteen when you were born. I—”

“No. Please. I don’t want to do this.” Her chest had tightened, along with her throat, and behind her eyes was a horrifying sting of tears. “I can’t.”

Rose stared at her for a long moment, then slowly nodded.

“I’m fine without you,” Mel said thickly. “I am.”

“Of course you are. It’s just that sometimes it’s easier to be fine if you’re not alone.”

“I like alone.”

Rose sighed, looked like she might say something else, but Mel opened the door wider in a not-too-subtle hint. “Good night,” Mel said.

“Good night.” Rose’s voice reflected her sadness.

Melissa turned away, no idea why she felt guilty. No idea at all.

A
FEW DAYS LATER
, Jason had just ordered himself a nice big cholesterol-filled breakfast at the Serendipity Café when Dr. Melissa Anders walked in, looking like her usual put-together, uptight self.

Just the sight of her made him smile.

She didn’t see him, mostly because she kept her eyes straight forward as she headed toward the counter, her sensible low heels clicking on the worn black-and-white checkered linoleum. He wondered if she saw the charm in the place that hadn’t been redecorated since sometime during John F. Kennedy’s era. This place with the jukebox and the red vinyl booths faded to a dark rose, the movie posters on the walls…it wasn’t some wannabe retro café, but the real deal.

But she didn’t take the time to look around, instead set her hands on the counter and ordered coffee.

The breakfast of champions.

Or the breakfast of a vet always in a hurry.

The waitress behind the counter smiled warmly at her, and thanked her again for fixing up her dog last week. Then the cook came out to ask her a
question about his cat’s bowel movements. An older couple sitting at the counter told her a story about a kitten she’d delivered for them.

All the while Melissa seemed to squirm.

Jason’s smile widened just a bit. Poor baby. Give her a dying animal, or even one who just needed its shots, and she was in her element.

Give her humans to deal with and she wiggled like a five-year-old who’d downed too much apple juice. He decided to rescue her. “Melissa.”

Her short dark hair spun when she looked over at him. She remained cool, he’d give her that, but her eyes gave her away, going from quick surprise to a flash of awareness and excitement, to a wariness he wanted to kiss away.

He’d concentrate on that awareness and excitement. “Come sit down and eat with me.”

“I’m just having coffee.”

“You can’t work on just coffee. Marge, add another special to my order.”

Marge smiled. “Coming up.”

Melissa sighed but walked over to him. Standing, he reached for her hand, urged her to sit. Before she could protest, he’d slid into the same side of the booth with her.

When she shot him a look, he simply smiled. “I was thinking about you, and then in you walked. Fancy that.”

“Fancy that.” She glanced at his arm and the healing scratches. She made a show of craning her neck to look at his ear and the bites there from the parrot. “You’re healing nicely.”

“Is that your way of saying ‘how are you?”’

“I guess it is.”

“Well, then, I’m good,” he said, and stroked her cheek when she smiled.

Marge showed up with two full plates of food, set them down, popping her gum. “Gotta say, Doc,” she said to Melissa. “I’m enjoying seeing you actually sit and enjoy. Don’t take this wrong now, but you’re usually so…stoic. This morning, you seem real. It’s a good look on you.” She winked at Jason. “Keep it up.”

Melissa stared at him as she walked away. “What does that mean? I’m a real person all the time.”

“Sure you are. It’s just that sometimes you forget to show it, that’s all. You’re doing a great job lately though.” Picking up his fork, he dug into his scrambled eggs. “This is far better than staring at a blank page.”

“You’re having trouble with a book?”

“Plot trouble. Character trouble. Hell, I’ve even got font trouble.”

“What’s your story?”

He never talked about a book before he turned it
in to his editor. But she was looking at him, sweet and curious, so what the hell. “My hero has a recurring nightmare about not being able to get home. It’s hell all night long, then every morning he wakes up covered in sweat, terrified. Only, as it turns out, it’s not a nightmare at all. It’s real. He’s not home and he can’t get there. I just can’t figure out why.”

They ate for a while in silence, and then Melissa said, “Maybe he doesn’t know
how
to get there.”

“Yes, but—” He stared at her. Thought about it, and suddenly laughed. “Yes. He doesn’t know how to get there—not physically, of course. But getting home is complicated by his past, his issues, his…everything.” He scratched his jaw. “Yeah.” He smiled. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.” She pushed her food around. “It’s always easier to solve someone else’s problems, you ever notice that?”

“Oh, I’ve noticed. Tell me yours. Maybe I can solve one for you.”

“I’m fine.” She took a few quick bites, avoiding his gaze, breaking his heart.

“Melissa.” He put a hand over hers. “Come on, share.”

She pulled her hand free.

“I thought we were past the no-touching-allowed thing.”

“This is going to take some getting used to.”
She pointed at him. “
You’re
going to take some getting used to.”

“Yeah.” He smiled. “I’ve been told.”

She sighed, then looked at him, that spark of awareness and a whole host of other things in her eyes now. “I’m trying to get used to you. I…I want to get used to you.”

His heart swelled in his chest so that it hurt, it physically hurt, to look at her. “From you, that’s quite the declaration.”

That made her laugh. “How is it I feel like you know me so well after, what…a week?”

“Some things just are,” he said, shocked to find it so.

“Yeah.” She eyed him then rolled her eyes. “Do you really want to hear my problem?”

“Please.”

Her mouth curved into a reluctant smile. “I guess maybe I’m a little stressed. My office needs help I can’t give it. My mother showed up out of the blue and thinks she can help, that I ought to just let the past be the past and start anew. For some reason that I don’t really like to admit, I don’t feel like letting go of the past and giving in.” She released a breath. “So. How am I doing?”

Guilt was like a knife. “Good,” he said quietly, knowing he needed to tell her that he knew Rose,
that he knew what Rose wanted from her, and in fact, knew the extremes she was willing to go to.

Instead, he leaned in and kissed her once, softly. He’d always been better at kissing instead of talking, and given her response, the quick intake of breath, the way her lips clung to his, the sleepy, sexy look in her eyes as he pulled back and looked into her face, she clearly felt the same way.

“Maybe you’re afraid of getting hurt,” he said very quietly, and held her hand when she would have pulled away. “I think it would be natural for you to be afraid of being hurt.”

“But it seems so…childish of me. I mean, I’m the one who moved here, to where she lives. I just can’t seem to stop myself from remembering how much I needed her years ago, back when she couldn’t be bothered.”

Here was his chance. He could explain how Rose had been forced by circumstance to walk away from Mel, how difficult it’d been for her, and how she regretted that decision made by a scared eighteen-year-old.

But he didn’t want to pressure or guilt Melissa into anything. He wanted these two women he cared very much about to find happiness together, not because one had been manipulated into it, but because they both wanted it to work. “Maybe…” He lifted their joined hands and kissed her fingers. “Maybe
you’ll find a middle ground, where it can work for both of you.”

“Maybe,” she said, not seeming too hopeful on that score. “But I’ve gone this long without her, it seems silly to need her help now.”

“It’s never too late.”

She looked unhappy about that, and it occurred to him maybe she wasn’t used to asking for help. He thought of how she’d grown up, how she’d probably not had anyone just for her, to love her, and that made him ache for her. “Sometimes, Mel, you only have to ask.”

She was silent for a long time. “I’m not good at asking,” she finally said.

Oh, baby, he thought, no kidding you’re not good at it. “Maybe you could practice.”

“I like my life the way it is.”

He started to open his mouth.

“
Just
as it is,” she said firmly.

He cocked his head and sent her an easy grin. “You sure about that? Because things can always get better.” Tugging her close, he kissed her.

She went still for a beat, then kissed him back.

Afterward her eyes were doing that sexy sleepy thing again. “Okay, point taken.” She was just breathless enough to make him feel really good. “But for right now, I’ve got to get to the clinic.”

He walked her there, and as he watched her walk inside to face her day, he found himself wondering, hoping, that Rose had another animal for him. But nothing that slobbered, bit or scratched.